Maggie FitzsimmonsPeriod 7

Panther TalesExam Portfolio

Basketball, football, soccer, and lacrosse. All of these sports are common for the students of Plant High, but Mallary Socher (9) is a little more unique. She bought her horse, Roosevelt, two years ago and in this time the two of them have grown and improved their riding skills immensely. “[Roosevelt is] the best pony you could ever have. He’s like a person,” said Socher. Socher loves Roosevelt very much, but challenges have come with owning him. A year ago, she received bad news that, due to severe and painful arthritis, she would never again be able to ride him. “He now lives in Brookesville, at the barn where he was born. I know the lady who lives there well, and I like her a lot and so does he. It was really sad for me, but I was happy he went to a good home,” says Socher. Though she can’t ride him, she still gets to visit Roosevelt every couple of months. “Mallary is super passionate. It’s obvious she loves the horses,” says Hannah Austin, who rides with Socher. Socher spends a lot of her time riding, and her dedication inspires many of the riders at her barn. After years of riding and working with horses at her barn, Socher formed strong friendships with other people she rides with. “It’s awesome being able to ride with Mallary, because we can talk about things in all parts of our life during our lessons,” says Lexi Chrysochoos, who rides with Socher every week.

Reflection: This was my November beat copy. It was really interesting to cover this and interview people, because Mallary is so passionate about horses. This most difficult part was the fact that all of the people who Mallary rode with were girls who don’t go to Plant.

Maggie FitzsimmonsPeriod 7

December Beat

With two weeks off of school, winter break gives students time to do a variety of things. Lexie At-las (10) spent some of her time at the mall, spending time with friends and buying gifts for the holidays. Though she admits holiday shopping can be hectic, Atlas always enjoys buying gifts she knows her family will love. “My favorite store is Sephora because there’s all sorts of makeup and other gifts you can buy,” says Atlas. “[My friends and I] sat around a bonfire and talked while we ate s’mores. It was warm and it brought us together,” says Maddie Calzon (10). Calzon and her friends spent their time hanging out around a bonfire and making memories with each other. For her, a bonfire with friends made winter break perfect. Some of her favorite things about the night included playing darts, using sparklers, and listening to music. For many students, winter break revolves around the holidays. This is true for Zoe Antinori (10), who spent some her time over winter break baking cookies. Every year, Antinori makes chocolate chip cookies for her neighbors while watching a Christmas movie, and then delivers them before Christmas. “I love that it has become a tradition for me, and I also love the smell in the room while the cookies bake,” says Antinori.

Reflection: This was my beat for december. I wrote about things that Plant students do over winter break, and this was difficult because it was sometimes hard to coordinate with people and figure out when I could take pictures over the break.

Maggie FitzsimmonsPeriod 7 (Panther Tales)

SeptemberSeptember Beat- Poll of Freshman

Freshmen were asked, “What do you hope to do and/or accomplish in your next four years at Plant?” They all had unique responses, showing the diversity of interests and goals of the freshman at Plant High School.

Natalie Claro- “I want to become a thespian.”

Natalie Preston- “I want to get on board for the Best Buddies club.”

Matthew Gibbons- “I want to play for the hockey team.”

Brock Fagler- “ I want to make varsity baseball.”

Brenton Wadsworth- “I want to get good grades.”

Austin Spicola- “I’m going to focus on graduating.”

Claire Haney- “I want to make the soccer team.”

Sam Hiatt- “I want to maintain a solid GPA, go to a good college, and excel in baseball.”

Olivia McIntosh- “I want to be successful in school and improve at sailing.”

Olivia Taylor- “I want to be in lots of clubs and make more friends.”

Reflection: This was for the first beat we ever did. The copy isn’t very good, becauase I made it a group of quotes that aren’t very good, but doing this beat was helpful for me. I’d nev-er had to interview people veyr much, and it helped me to get out of my comfort zone when I had to approach people I had never met and ask them questions.

Reflection: This was a photo I used for my October beat, about things freshman do on Friday nights. It was difficult to edit, because the lighting in the photo made weird shadows on her face.

Reflection: I edited this photo using Photoshop, which was new for me and it helped me to increase my skills. This was a photo I used for my November beat.

Reflection: This was another photo that I used for November beat. Editing it with Photoshop was difficult because the lighting in the photo was fairly bright.

Reflection: This was a photo I took for my December beat, about things kids at Plant do over winter break. This was difficult to take because it was windy and the fire was difficult to photograph.

Reflection: I took this photo for my December beat, when I was cov-ering things Plant students do over winter break. Here, I was covering Zoe Antinori baking for christmas, which was difficult beacuse she moved around a lot while I was tak-ing pictures.

Oh the Places you’’l go Maggie Fitzsimmons (10) loves traveling and spends as much time as she can in other places, doing fun and exciting things. (Pictured on the right) Fitzsimmons says her favorite trip was when she traveled to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico with her family during spring break of 2014. “We went surfing, which was by far the best part of the trip. The waves in Mexico are so much better than the waves in Florida!” says Maggie’s brother, Michael Fitzsimmons. Another favorite place to visit of Maggie’s is Her-mosa Beach, California. Last summer, Maggie spent a week there with her brother, Mi-chael Fitzsimmons, her cousin,

Kevin Fitzsimmons, and aunt, Debbie Peterson. “Being able to spend time in California was a fun experience, and we all got really close over the week,” says Maggie’s cousin Kevin. Lastly, Maggie says that one of her favorite places she’s been is Seattle, Washington, where she went on a mission trip with her youth group during the summer of 2014. “It was a trip I will never forget because I felt so connected to everyone there,” says Laura Jones, a friend of Maggie’s. Overall, traveling has provided Maggie with great memories, new experiences, and lasting bonds with the people she has traveled with.

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Oh the Places you’’l go

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Maggie Fitzsimmons with Rachel Ferreri at the Gavin Degraw con-cert. They went to this concert in Orlando for Rachel’s 15th birthday. “It was fun having all my friends there,” says Rachel.

Maggie Fitzsimmons and Jessica Domini-ci smile at The Fray concert. The two went to the concert during the summer of 2014. “They’re my favorite band, so I loved it,” says Jessica.

Maggie Fitzsimmons poses with her family and the ‘Dirty Heads’. The family went to the band’s concert at Red Rocks in Denver, Colo-rado. “Meeting the band was incredible,” says Michael Fitzsimmons.

Maggie Fitzsimmons meets Demi Lovato at a concert in 2011. At the time, it was Maggie’s fa-vorite singer and it was her first concert. “I don’t really listen to Demi Lovato now, but at the time I was overjoyed,” says Maggie.

Concerts

(1) Maggie Fitzsimmons and other members of her youth group pose in front of the Space Needle in Seattle, Washingotn. They traveled to Seattle with their church for a mission trip. “The Space Needle was by far the coolest thing we did,” says Laura Jones. (2) Maggie Fitzsimmons and Zoe Antinori smile while petting a dolphin at Atlantis in the Bahamas. They traveled to the Bahamas for a vacation during sping break of 2014. “The dolphin was so cute and the people there were so nice,” Antinori says about the experience. (3) Maggie Fitzsimmons and her brother, Michael Fitzsimmons, pose for a picture after surfing in Hermosa Beach, California. They visited Hermosa Beach with their cousins during the summer of 2014. “The water was pretty cold, but the surf was incredible,” says Michael Fitzsimmons about surfing in Califnornia. (4) Maggie Fitzsimmons and Zoe Antinori pose with snowboards in hand in Park CIty, Utah. They travel to Park City together every year to snowboard and enjoy the snow. “We fell a ton, but it was insanely fun and we imporved so much throughout the week,” says Antinori.

Reflection: I choose this spread because this was the first time I’d created a spread like this and it was also the first time I used InDesign. It took a lot of time, but I learned a lot about using InDe-sign and making spreads.

Reflection: This was the first time I had used a software to create something. It was very difficult for me to try and find a way to make the picture I drew on paper into a design on the computer.